<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The present article summarizes the findings of a survey among first-year journalism students in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. The survey covers a wide array of subjects including social recruitment, motivation for studying journalism, preferences regarding future journalistic working life, views on the role of journalism in society, attitudes toward the profession, journalistic ideals and ideas about what are the most important traits for journalists. The study reveals significant differences between journalism students in the Nordic countries. The analysis appears to support a ‘nation type’ interpretation of attitudes among journalists, linked to different national traditions, in explaining the differences found. Our results clearly indicate the importance of traditional sociological explanations of behavior for the understanding of journalistic preferences and ambitions. For example, the choice of preferred topics is strongly gendered and appears as the sexual division of labor sublimated into journalistic preferences.</p></abstract>

The present article summarizes the findings of a survey among first-year journalism students in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. The survey covers a wide array of subjects including social recruitment, motivation for studying journalism, preferences regarding future journalistic working life, views on the role of journalism in society, attitudes toward the profession, journalistic ideals and ideas about what are the most important traits for journalists. The study reveals significant differences between journalism students in the Nordic countries. The analysis appears to support a ‘nation type’ interpretation of attitudes among journalists, linked to different national traditions, in explaining the differences found. Our results clearly indicate the importance of traditional sociological explanations of behavior for the understanding of journalistic preferences and ambitions. For example, the choice of preferred topics is strongly gendered and appears as the sexual division of labor sublimated into journalistic preferences.

The Nordic Journalists of Tomorrow

Dr.polit., Postdoc, Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College

Cand.polit, Ph.d. Student, Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College

Professor, Faculty of Journalism, Library and Information Science, Oslo University College

Ph.d., Associate professor, Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies, Roskilde University

Dr.Pol.Sc., Professor, Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

An Exploration of First Year Journalism Students in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden

The present article summarizes the findings of a survey among first-year journalism students in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway. The survey covers a wide...

The Nordic Journalists of Tomorrow

Published Online: Feb 07, 2017

Page range: 149 - 165

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0144

Keywords
journalism education, journalism students, gender, role of journalist, Nordic journalism

© 2009 Jan Fredrik Hovden et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Nordic Journalists of Tomorrow

Published Online: Feb 07, 2017

Page range: 149 - 165

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0144

Keywordsjournalism education, journalism students, gender, role of journalist, Nordic journalism

© 2009 Jan Fredrik Hovden et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
journalism education, journalism students, gender, role of journalist, Nordic journalism